Harry Herbert Miller

He cut underwater cables while hostile fire swept the boats.

Harry Herbert Miller was born on 4 May 1879 at Noel Shore in Hants County, Nova Scotia. He later entered the United States Navy from Massachusetts. His older brother, Willard Dwight Miller, also served in the Navy, and the brothers were together during the Spanish-American War aboard the gunboat USS Nashville.

On 11 May 1898, American naval forces sent small boats toward Cienfuegos on Cuba's southern coast. Their task was to interrupt the submarine telegraph cables linking the port with the wider Spanish communications network. The men had to grapple for the cables, haul them up and cut them while exposed close to shore. Nashville and the cruiser Marblehead supported the operation, but the boat crews still came under heavy Spanish fire.

Miller remained at this work despite the danger. His official citation recognises his courage and composure throughout the cable-cutting operation. The sailors and Marines involved faced a task requiring sustained work in open boats rather than a single charge or exchange of fire. Both Harry and Willard subsequently received the Medal of Honor for their conduct on the same day.

Harry continued his naval career to the rating of quartermaster third class before leaving the service. He later settled in Costa Rica, far from both the Canadian community where he had been born and the Cuban waters in which he had fought. He died there on 12 March 1968, aged eighty-eight, and was buried in the central cemetery at Tres Rios. The brothers' separate awards commemorated their shared experience in the boats off Cienfuegos.

Official Medal of Honor citation

On board the U.S.S. Nashville during the operation of cutting the cable leading from Cienfuegos, Cuba, 11 May 1898. Facing the heavy fire of the enemy, Miller displayed extraordinary bravery and coolness throughout this action.